We, those of us who served in the military, defended your 1st Amendment rights. Some of us even bought your paper. And how do you thanks us?

Much of that is necessary to recruit and retain a high-quality, all-volunteer military. The men and women who risk their lives to keep us secure deserve decent pay while they serve and ample benefits once they retire. But current military pay, pension systems and retiree health care benefits are unsustainable and ripe for reform.
— The Pentagon Budget and the Deficit New York Times, September 26, 2011

Strange, for such a “bold” idea, no one at the paper attaches their name to it. Oh, and the version in print has the slap in the face title: “The Pentagon Budget and the Deficit: Containing spiraling personnel costs has to be part of the solution.”

Hey asshats, personnel costs spiral because it’s not the 1950’s anymore. Many service members have families. An all volunteer force was promised benefits and a pension in exchange for the best years of our lives.

No one wants to go back to the 70’s and early 80’s. Service members on food stamps. Leadership leaving due to the bad climate. Rampant drug abuse and legal problems due to the draft era soldiers wrecking the military.

A draft will not save the DOD.

Hilarious story in the current issue of Combat Aircraft. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Hungarian air force was in bad shape. It had inherited a huge fleet of aging airplanes from its former Soviet ally, as well as personnel that were mostly poorly-trained conscripts.
…

ordered to de-ice them before flying operations in wintertime. It is recalled that, since no jet fuel was available for jet heaters, these soldiers used brooms to remove the ice, a process which resulted in the MiGs’ honeycomb structures such as elevators, flaps, rudders and ailerons being seriously damaged.

Several of the MiGs never flew again. Not coincidentally, Hungary ended the draft in 2005.by DAVID AXE, warisboring.com

In the real world, we need to keep the pay and bennies that will attract the best people. It’s not numbers but knowledge, experience and courage. You can’t draft it, buy it or rent it. The world can’t wait for us to fix our fiscal mess, the bad guys are moving now.

“People like Karl Rove like to keep the racism very covert and so Herman Cain provides this great opportunity so he can say, ‘Look: This is not a racist anti-immigrant, anti-female, anti-gay movement. Look: We have a black man.’ And look he’s polling well and he won a straw poll.”
–Janeane Garofalo, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on Current TV

I am the divorced father of two boys. As my mother would say, let me tell you something. Kids are expensive. You may think your Xbox and your HD TV are expensive, that’s peanuts. Kids cost time, money, effort and emotions. They grow up fast (the clothing bill alone…dear god…). And here’s the rub:

“I take care of my kids.” You’re supposed to take care of your kids, you dumb motherfucker! What kind of ignorant shit is that? “I ain’t never been to jail.” Whatcha want, a cookie?! You ain’t supposed to go to jail, you low-expectations-having motherfucker!
— Chris Rock

There is no tangible reward for having kids. I mean, you don’t get sympathy, a card or extra money for kids. Sure, after 18 years, seeing them leave the house but in this economy….

Rich people can afford kids. It used to be that poor families would have many kids because some of them would die. There were celebrations of teenage birthdays because most parents 100-200 years ago expected most of their kids to not make it. Childhood and teenager are inventions of the industrial age.

So some asshat on slate bitches:

You hear about the “haves” versus the “have-nots,” but not so much about the “have-one-or-nones” versus the “have-a-fews.” This, though, is how you might characterize the stark and growing fertility class divide in the United States. Two new studies bring the contrasting reproductive profiles of rich and poor women into sharp relief. One, from the Guttmacher Institute, shows that the rates of unplanned pregnancies and births among poor women now dwarf the fertility rates of wealthier women, and finds that the gap between the two groups has widened significantly over the past five years. The other, by the Center for Work-Life Policy, documents rates of childlessness among corporate professional women that are higher than the childlessness rates of some European countries experiencing fertility crises.
–Knocked Up and Knocked Down, Why America’s widening fertility class divide is a problem. By Sharon Lerner. Slate.com

Lerner goes on to moan about the “mommy track”. Women who take time out for families tend to not advance as fast as women and men who put their careers first. Poor women are hardest hit.

No fucking duh.

Many careers require lots of work. Liberals hate work. Doctors need hours in the OR. Pilots need flight hours in the cockpit. Programmers have to bang out code. Lawyers need to argue cases before a judge (after clerking a lot). Most white collar jobs require putting time in so you can get evaluated. Having kids doesn’t erase these requirements (espically if they are required by law in the case of pilots & doctors). In short, the world doesn’t stop because you have kids. Lerner goes on to cite Europe’s model of childcare as something we should copy.

Lerner…have you seen Europe? They broke. No money. Nice childcare costs $$$$.

In the military, it’s common for soldiers (who do get childcare at a discount) who have kids to be sneered at by their peers for having the gall to go pick up said offspring. While the other soldiers have to keep working. Many a commander has to be reminded that soldiers have to pick their kids up by 4:30-5 pm or that soldier will go to jail (it’s the law!).

Many single soldiers save much $$$ and get promoted faster. Many wait and have kids in when they are older (and have that $$$ to spend). Young soldiers who get married and have kids early in their careers tend to have a lot of problems, mostly with money. They then end up divorced.

Civilians are no different.

When you are in your teens and 20’s you are too stupid and immature for kids. No really. Most 18-27 year-olds don’t even have an identity. Financial responsibility? Ha! Guess who racks up student loan and credit card debt that dooms them later?

By the time the late 20’s and early 30’s roll around identity has formed. Debts can be paid off or are lower. If you were not an idiot, you have money to spend or have a job. Most of the married graduate students I met were either childless or were far enough along that they could start having kids. When the bills for braces and doctor’s visits come, it helps to have a career and not yet another student loan.

Most undergraduate college students with kids either drop out or take years to finish.

Of course kids equal poverty if you are already poor. They cost a lot. If you studied Xbox, cutting classes and Jersey Shore instead of your subjects, kids will not make things better. The jobs go to educated people and those willing to put in the hours.

Research shows that women with unplanned pregnancies are more likely to smoke, drink, and go without prenatal care. –Lerner

And water is wet. These women tend to be the less educated, the less mature. Remember, thanks to the left birth control is readily available. Hey abortion is legal and thanks to Planned Parenthood, paid for by the taxpayer. So why do poor women keep having kids? Guess. There was even a rap video about EBT (until Youtube pulled it).

With men reduced to child support and the idea that Uncle Sam will pay, what incentive do the poor have to plan for children? But wait..more kids but the bennies are fixed. That’s right a fixed income! Even with money for more kids (if your state allows it) most things in life are expensive. Cigs, alcohol and junk food are cheap but very bad for you. Of course college and a career are out of the question. So to the crappy jobs or welfare rolls you go. As so do your children.

Now lets say you get out of college. Male or female, you suddenly hear “your pregnant” from the doctor? Well shithouse mouse. You will have a kid. Do you take time out to raise a family? Do you ask freinds and family to help you? Do you work part time? Does your spouse? Remember, if you get divorced or don’t get married, poverty can happen. Let’s assume you avoid poverty but have to slow down your nice career path for the sake of the child(ren).

Who is that HR manager going to hire? Someone with lots of experience or someone who took “time off”. Yep, childless one with the hours/experience/etc. Remember childcare is a perk. You’re ducking out of work to fetch your souvenir from spring break means your peers are working harder than you. And they get promoted while you wonder why you’re still in the back office.

Childcare costs money and you can’t leave your little darling there forever. Most jobs go past 9 to 5 these days. Wanna get ahead? Work hard and put the hours in. Many careers require you to attend certification classes (daycare not provided). You better work past closing…oh, wait, you have to pick up the child before the daycare calls the police on you.

Europe had a generous welfare state. And then the money ran out. NATO needed smart bombs for Libya and they had to get them from US stocks. The UK almost ran out of cruise missiles. But a pregnant 15 year old ‘model’ living with her mom may get a better house.

More kids mean more work. More work at crap wages. Society and technology moved on, the days of a good “blue collar” job paying good money out of high school are gone. Raising the minimum wage or paid leave won’t fly in this economy. Businesses either don’t hire or they close if wages go up these days. There. Is. No. Money.

The trend is fewer children and longer life. Remember, historically siblings were there to replace the ones that didn’t make it. Or work the farm. Or keep property in the family. That was for male children. Before the 20th century (and in the Middle East today) women had no rights. Male children were prized, daughters were married off (nowadays they are aborted, thanks feminists!).

As health improves,family size goes down. As it should. We have vaccines, medicine. No one dies of the flu or “spirits”. In the west, we shop for baby names before the child is born. In very poor countries (and in decades past), they don’t name kids before a certain age in case they die.

Now we can raise living standards. That helps. Free trade and capitalism is the way to make this happen. Remember socalist Europe is broke and China…just China….

When I first read Lerner’s column, I though it was a another wacky rant on poor people having kids. Meh, could be. Or it could be another cry for more welfare state. More pay for less work. Gee, I want my accountant, lawyer, pilot or doctor to have done the training, hours and work needed so they can do the job right. Kids are no excuse.

It is surprising because the thing to do for the planet was not have kids. Or because many leftist were spoiled, selfish and didn’t want to spend money on kids. The abortion industry wants you to believe that kids are a burden.

It’s refreshing to see a leftie who wants children.

But children are the responsibility of the parents. It takes two parents, or one very involved parent. Not the “watch the kids while I/we go clubbing”, not the welfare parents. Involved parents. It means making sacrifices. It means doing without.

You didn’t get as far as your peers? Too bad. You wine that you didn’t make that sweet promotion because you had kids? STFU. You had kids. The rest of us shouldn’t have to pay for your spawn.

Seeing those smiling faces and hearing the laughter of children is priceless. I don’t need no gov’ment hand out for that.

One thing that’s remarkable is how many people think they are writing about something interesting when they are not. How many times have you lost track of what someone is saying when they are talking to you in person? Unfortunately, you can’t just walk away in real life if you want to be polite. On the internet, you can walk away with a click if someone fails to interest you. This happens all the time.

If your idea of being interesting is writing about complex tax codes, what your cat ate for breakfast (unless it’s Maru), or how much you bench pressed, you may be boring. It all depends. The fact of the matter is that it’s not the thing, it’s the relationship to the thing, and when it comes to writing, it’s not the subject, it’s your relationship to it.
–“Here’s Why No One Reads Your Blog“: Susannah Breslin, Forbes.com

One of the criticisms of the modern age (Every age was modern at some point in time) is that we have too many distractions.

I don’t think so. People can be smart and they can be morons at the same time. Or just not interested.

I never say “that is uninteresting” but rather “I am uninterested”, for it is always more reasonable to assume that I fail to see what is there than that devotees see what is not there. I love to hear of people devoting their lives to pursuits that sound dull to me, for I know that their enthusiasm is right and my boredom is wrong, and I am happy for the rebuke
–“Everything is Interesting“: Brian Jay Stanley

I don’t know how many times I’ve stumbled upon things I didn’t know on instapundit, TvTropes or . Or any of the blogs I read.

Some blogs are backed by big companies. Others are “someone in their pajamas.” Some have daily updates.

This is not one of those blogs.

I blog for me and share with you dear reader.

I do take issue with “controversialist”

A controversialist is “a person who likes to disagree with other people and say things that make people angry or think about a subject.”

Ms.Breslin, not everyone is in a position to stir the pot. Some of us have real jobs, or are in positions where controversy would be bad.

I shout from the roof tops because I’m interested. I don’t waffle, the only punches I pulla re to comply with the law.

I talk about geeky army stuff. Tech pr0n. Girls. Girls who are scantly clad. (That’s my term for female humans over the age of 18 btw liberals).

DO I want people to read my blog? Sure.

Blogs are not about page reads only. It’s about a chorus of voices. It’s about people speaking their mind. It’s about thousands…or millions of people having a discussion.
Without elitist “gatekeepers”. It’s a free net. There are dozens of sites to blog, micro-blog and such. Some bloggers can make a living at it. Some suck.

It’s about getting quoted, it’s about being one site among many that mentions “China”, “gunwalker”, etc. If you hate that, look at the pretty girls. Or click somewhere else, I don’t mind.

Do I care if I get zero reads? Meh, bills need to be paid. I gots a job for that. I don’t do this for a living, I do it for fun and to comment on teh world.

It’s that I can is what matters.

If you find this boring..oh well. But remember, what’s boring can become dangerous when you’re not looking.

Bill Clinton was accused of having a “cruise missile” foreign policy. Instead of sending ground forces after Bin Laden, he had the Air Force and Navy hit his compounds in Sudan and Afghanistan from afar. Many suspected that it was to get Monica off the front page of the New York Times. That worked out so well for America.

After 9/11, the Bush Administration began arming Predator drones. The left howled in protest at first. With the change of adminstraions, it seems more drones are going to be used in SWA:

The CIA is building what The Washington Post described yesterday as a “constellation” of bases in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
…
Yet as a senior U.S. intelligence official who is skeptical of the strategy often reminds me, Washington’s over-reliance on drones in Pakistan’s tribal areas is a major tactical weakness. The drones, he says, are “efficient in killing leaders based in those areas, but not sufficient in dismantling al-Qaeda.”

The problem with drones, missiles and bombs is the assumption that it’s a magic bullet. In the 1970’s, the CIA’s chickens came home to roost. Investigations into the black ops and HUMINT of the Cold War showed that the CIA did many questionable things. So the focus in the 80’s and 90’s was into satellites and ELINT (and computer models). Because devices and paper models don’t bleed, don’t complain and don’t talk to the press, the CIA let thie human intelligence networks rot.

Then came Bin Laden.

After the “enhanced” interrogations, the black sites and the renditions, Al-Qaeda came apart. The drone strikes helped a great deal. But where did the information come from? What about the Northern Alliance?

The “drones” are an excellent tactic to keep al Qaeda and allied groups off balance, but their use is not a substitute for denying terrorists from physically holding ground. Despite eight years of Predator strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the Taliban remain firmly in control of the region.
— J.E. Dyer of Hot Air pulls the money quote.

Information is only as good as the source. During the Vietnam war, the Air Force was tasked to find the NVA’s key infrastructure. After many recon flights and ELINT missions, they told the White House that North Vietnam didn’t have any. After LBJ yelled at them, they came up with a list of rail yards, bridges and such. That’s right, he send multi-million dollar aircraft to bomb boats and rail cars that cost at most a few thousand dollars. Instead of breaking the NVA or sending a message, the bombing instead undid his presidency.

If we target key terrorist leaders, that’s one thing. But the temptation is to view stand off weapons as substitutes for boots on the ground. Many terrorist groups are little more than a few armed thugs in caves or huts. Many hide with civilian populations just to cause collateral damage when we hit them. Dead women and children are gonna happen, that’s how terrorists ‘fight’. Mao said a guerrilla is a “fish swimming in a peasant sea.” Guess what happens when you fish with dynamite?

Special Forces, spies and yes, ground troops will always be there. The time will come when some “terrorist” group is revealed to be the pawns of a large army. One with SAM’s that shoot down our drones and crush the Special Forces sent to stop them. The NVA had lots of technical help and even outright assistance from the USSR. Bin Laden had (and his network still has) many financial donors from the Middle East and even the developed world. It takes a complete and total effort from all of the government and the nations involved. Fight to win. Messages are best sent by a diplomatic bag.

Notice:

This site is in no way affiliated with the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, Fort Bliss, White Sands Missile Range, or any other government agency. Nothing said herein should be considered to have any official sanction by those agencies.
You Mileage may vary, dates in calender are closer than they appear.